Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance names new director

Tim Smith, The Baltimore Sun

Jeannie Howe, former president of Everyman Theatre's board of directors, has been appointed executive director of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, effective Jan. 3.

She succeeds J. Buck Jabaily, who is stepping down from the GBCA post after two years to work with Philip Arnoult on creating Baltimore Open Theatre, which is scheduled to debut next fall with all-free performances.

The alliance, founded in 2001 by the late Nancy Haragan, is a support and advocacy organization for regional arts groups and individual artists. There are more that 80 members. GBCA maintains an online arts calendar and job listings, and has played an integral role in various festivals and cultural symposiums, as well as the Baker Artist Awards, over the past decade.

The Takoma Park-born Howe, founder and president of BayCliff Associates, is a management and fundraising consultant. She has degrees in theater from St. Mary's College of Maryland and Miami University in Ohio.

In addition to serving on the board of Everyman Theatre for 14 years, many of them as president, she stepped down to become a staffer in the company's development department three years ago. As capital campaign director, she led the company's $17 million effort to buy and renovate a new venue on the west side.

GBCA board chairman Paul Meecham, president and CEO of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, praised Howe's "wealth of experience and knowledge of the Greater Baltimore cultural scene, invaluable assets as GBCA begins its second decade."